{"title":"Skills or Degree? The Rise of Skill-Based Hiring for AI and Green Jobs","authors":"Eugenia Gonzalez Ehlinger, Fabian Stephany","doi":"arxiv-2312.11942","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"For emerging professions, such as jobs in the field of Artificial\nIntelligence (AI) or sustainability (green), labour supply does not meet\nindustry demand. In this scenario of labour shortages, our work aims to\nunderstand whether employers have started focusing on individual skills rather\nthan on formal qualifications in their recruiting. By analysing a large time\nseries dataset of around one million online job vacancies between 2019 and 2022\nfrom the UK and drawing on diverse literature on technological change and\nlabour market signalling, we provide evidence that employers have started\nso-called \"skill-based hiring\" for AI and green roles, as more flexible hiring\npractices allow them to increase the available talent pool. In our observation\nperiod the demand for AI roles grew twice as much as average labour demand. At\nthe same time, the mention of university education for AI roles declined by\n23%, while AI roles advertise five times as many skills as job postings on\naverage. Our regression analysis also shows that university degrees no longer\nshow an educational premium for AI roles, while for green positions the\neducational premium persists. In contrast, AI skills have a wage premium of\n16%, similar to having a PhD (17%). Our work recommends making use of\nalternative skill building formats such as apprenticeships, on-the-job\ntraining, MOOCs, vocational education and training, micro-certificates, and\nonline bootcamps to use human capital to its full potential and to tackle\ntalent shortages.","PeriodicalId":501487,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - QuantFin - Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"arXiv - QuantFin - Economics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2312.11942","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
For emerging professions, such as jobs in the field of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) or sustainability (green), labour supply does not meet
industry demand. In this scenario of labour shortages, our work aims to
understand whether employers have started focusing on individual skills rather
than on formal qualifications in their recruiting. By analysing a large time
series dataset of around one million online job vacancies between 2019 and 2022
from the UK and drawing on diverse literature on technological change and
labour market signalling, we provide evidence that employers have started
so-called "skill-based hiring" for AI and green roles, as more flexible hiring
practices allow them to increase the available talent pool. In our observation
period the demand for AI roles grew twice as much as average labour demand. At
the same time, the mention of university education for AI roles declined by
23%, while AI roles advertise five times as many skills as job postings on
average. Our regression analysis also shows that university degrees no longer
show an educational premium for AI roles, while for green positions the
educational premium persists. In contrast, AI skills have a wage premium of
16%, similar to having a PhD (17%). Our work recommends making use of
alternative skill building formats such as apprenticeships, on-the-job
training, MOOCs, vocational education and training, micro-certificates, and
online bootcamps to use human capital to its full potential and to tackle
talent shortages.